This is the one. This is the episode, the story, the moment, where I felt at the end that the series was truly and completely back in all its former glory, and with much more besides. With this one, they complete the present-future-past cycle of the first three episodes, and they do it with tremendous style, with what I think is perhaps Mark Gatiss' best "Doctor Who" story he's ever written... the only one possibly better was his first, "Nightshade," and I can't be sure of that now since it's so long since I read that.

So, what was it that did this for me? Well, right out of the gate we have a tremendous pre-credit sequence leading into the electronic scream and the opening theme that was the equal of any of the best traditional cliffhanger endings, with an already scary-looking dead grandmother turning glowy-blue, snapping her grieving grandson's neck, the undertaker rushing in and trying to close the lid on her, her busting out of her coffin and then out onto an utterly perfectly designed Victorian-era nighttime street with snow all over the place, screaming straight into camera. Now _that's_ how you start an episode!

And then we have a nice and traditional story structure which Gatiss is usually very good at, where you take a few interesting elements, mix them together in the special Doctor Who mixing bowl, and out comes a delicious concoction. Here it's Victorian times (has the BBC ever done this wrong?), Charles Dickens played by Simon Callow (has he ever got this part wrong? (no)), a creepy undertaker, a young servant girl with second sight, and some aliens that look like they're ghosts. If these were all the elements of a book or a Big Finish audio, one such as myself might cry "cliche" or "we've seen it done before", but it's something else entirely to see it all realized on-screen in such a convincing way and by such tremendous actors. What might have been bad for the goose was terrific for the gander this time.

In fact, this was very, very much like watching a Big Finish story come to life before your eyes... like a cross between Gatiss' own "Phantasmagoria" (with the ghosts and the seance) and Rob Shearman's "The Chimes of Midnight" (with the servant girl and the class issues), and perhaps a bit of "Bloodtide" as well only with Dickens playing the part of the brilliant man in the middle instead of Darwin.

That's what made this a double joy to see. Oh, and "Medicinal Purposes" too probably, only with Christopher Eccleston instead of David Tennant. :)

If I have one teeny, tiny criticism of this story, it's that it was perhaps a bit too Big Finish-like in places. I say "teeny tiny" because the only people this affects are those who've listened to all the audios a lot, and specifically, the Eighth Doctor and Charley ones, because at times this seemed more like an Eighth Doctor/Charley story than the Ninth Doctor/Rose stories we've had so far. Specifically, I'm thinking of the scene where the Doctor talks with Dickens in his coach and blathers on and on and on about his books. He should be enthusiastic about meeting Dickens, but it seems like more of a McGann Doctor trait for him to keep running on and on and on with his sentences like this than an Eccleston Doctor trait to me. But again, this is probably just me! And a Ninth Doctor/Rose relationship that's a lot like the Eighth Doctor/Charley one is not something I should be complaining about really, since that will be a near guarantee of mainstream success, imho. (and the ratings for this week would seem to confirm that this is already happening)

As for the science fiction part of the story, I loved it to pieces. This is partly because in that slush pile story of mine I mentioned last week in the "Dreamtime" review (the one with the steamboat on the Mississippi), I had also planned to reuse the time-rifts-cause-hauntings-and-psychics device that Gatiss used here. (He beat me to it, the rotter. :) ) I say reuse because this was all Chris Boucher's idea back in '"Image of the Fendahl," that time fissures are to be found in every haunted place like Fetchborough, and was the reason Mother Tyler (oo! I hadn't spotted the name similarity till just now....heywaitaminute....) was psychic having lived on it all her life. (ooo... and could this somehow tie into this Big Bad Wolf thing that keeps getting mentioned? hmmm.) The rest of the idea, of the aliens being composed of gas, was not a million miles away from the situation in "Fury from the Deep," where the weed fed on natural gas, but sort of turned on its head, and glued together with the ghost and cadaver-possession theme, and like I said before, this new combination in the blender worked out really very well.

One brilliant touch to the storytelling was Gwyneth having already been dead when the Doctor offered to set off the explosion for her and the way that it was played. At first, you might just think that this Doctor let her do her self-sacrifice just because she asked to... but upon closer inspection on a second viewing, you can tell she really was dead (the glazed look on her face, her non-reaction to the poisonous atmosphere that forced Rose and Dickens out, and the Doctor checking her pulse) and he wasn't lying after all. But on that first viewing, you might just think that he was being a bit more selfish than usual... especially given the "damaged" issues we learn he's dealing with since last week. It's clearly that which motivates him to blunder in and help the Gelth even though all he knows about them is what they've told him... just the fact they're also refugees from the Time War was enough to turn on his pity bones and do what they asked of him. He clearly feels some responsibility for it, as this was probably also the reason he decided to give the Nestenes a chance back in "Rose" rather than just tip in the anti-plastic from the start.

And I really also love the farewell scene to Dickens, where he keeps stopping them and asking questions, and the Doctor gets to tell him his works will live on "forever." That's such a wonderful idea... imagine being able to go back in time and tell your favorite person in history how much they meant to you and to the future as a whole... like being able to show Abraham Lincoln Mount Rushmore or something. That was tremendous.

And now my extra-special mentions for some little details that I haven't seen remarked on much if at all yet. First is in the sound design, where if you now listen carefully to the interior TARDIS scenes, you can now hear the late 70s-to-80s-era original TARDIS interior humming sounds mixed in underneath the new more TVMovie-like sounds. This is especially evident during the Dickens farewell scene as the Doctor and Rose look at him on the scanner. They've also taken pains to play in the fully-restored TARDIS dematerialisation sound and let it play a good long while. That's also great. But best of all is a really, really, really neat touch from the special effects department.

Look carefully at the TARDIS as it's disappearing... look at the little bits of snow that've gathered on the sills of the panels on the police box... as the TARDIS fades away, that snow _doesn't_... it instead starts to fall to the ground, and then gets whipped up in a swirl by the wind! There's only one word for that: Fantastic!

My overall rating for this... 9 out of 10. I really want to give it a full 10, but I'm in that awful position already of having to hold off on using it as I suspect I'm going to need 10 later in the season. How about 9.2 for this one?

A mixed bag this one. Script wise, the best of the series so far. Mark Gatiss brings together a much sharper vision and brings out the mysteriousness of the Doctor far better than RTD has managed so far. Such things as the Doctor silently overhearing conversations, arguing with Rose over morality are some of the best moments yet. This is a Doctor, like the first, who follows his own laws. Yet this is the second time in three episodes that the Doctor has had to be rescued by someone else, Firstly Rose herself when an Auton grabs hold of him and now Charles Dickens.

First things first. Simon Callow made this episode, he blew everyone else off screen. I don't think there is another actor out there who could currently portray Dickens. Callow has the perfect attributes to do so, it was unfortunate then that this episode was a clunker for Billie and that Eccleston degenerated into the worst mugging and ham acting I have ever seen in the cab scene. Billie, who was fantastic last week, here descended into a kind of expressions by numbers type of acting, she did redeem herself in a couple of scenes, such as the seance, where she was genuinely naturally performing and I felt like I was watching Rose rather than Billie attempting to be Rose.

There are a couple of things that stand out as being repeated in each episode, like they want to drum it into us, firstly, Rose keeps going on about things only occurring once and no one being there to see them, or other comments of that ilk. it's feeling repetitive now. Also Rose, apart from always befriends someone who is going to die: Clive, blue plumber girl, Gwyneth, with the latter two all that has happened is that she has shown her inability to adapt, she keeps trying to turn the world to how she see's it rather than as it is. While this may be realistic for an inner city girl with only a gymnastics award to her name, if it continues it's going to become very predictable and boring. Even Leela adapted to time travel better than this. The assistant is there to show us the wonder of a new world with fresh eyes, not keep trying to turn it into something normal, because it's not and never will be. This is part of what this series of Doctor Who has lost.

I've worked out why this series bugs me, the cinematography is too crisp and clean. I don't know what it's shot on, digital film or what but the atmosphere just doesn't feel right. The special effects this week were again wonderful, the Geith were truly fantastic and wonderfully rendered but great effects do not a great show make if the overall atmosphere is wrong. It simply did not affect me, whereas perhaps a bit more soft focus or grain in the film, a bit of fog on the sets could have tightened things up considerably.

And yet another gripe about the format length. 45 minutes (to an hour) has established itself as the proper length for sci fi serials in the US and there, it works. It feels like 45 minutes. On Doctor Who it feels like 25 minutes. Something about the pacing, the amount of work to do closes down the time. It just doesn't seem to work. The American shows also have ad breaks which are perfect for mini cliffhangers. What I would have done for a cliff hanger after the Geith turn evil, the Doctor and Rose locked in the dungeon, Sneed dead and Charles Dickens running for his life. It was perfect.

Britain has not produced any proper sci fi in years (suddenly after Dr Who they've redone Quatermass), when was the last great piece of home grown sci fi? Neverwhere? The Tomorrow People (90's version) I think we've lost the knack which is why several aspects of Who borrow from Buffy or Star Trek and I think that's wrong, we have, or had our own way of doing things and used to be far more succesful at sci fi than America ever was.

Rant out of the way this episode was enjoyable for Mark's script, Callow's wonderful Dickens and the fantastically realised monsters, there were a few memorable scenes from Eccleston and that was it. The stage manager character was wasted, I've worked with Wayne (who played the character) and he's a fantastic actor and very funny. His first (and only) scene sets the character up and then he disappeared (see him out of focus on the right of the stage as the ghost attacks). Why did he exist in the first place? Is there a deleted scene somewhere? Surely he'd be out looking for his star. What was the point of this character being in the show, standing around for two scenes doing nothing? especially when I know Wayne is a very talented actor.

Also since when did the Doctor become Wales o phobic. Funny lines and of course tongue in cheek, but still cheap jokes and depressing to a Cardiff born Welshman. Especially considering the hospitality Cardiff has shown to the show. I should perhaps be grateful that a tv series even acknowledges the existence of the place. (Having a Welshman running the show being a huge boon)

Overall 8 out of 10. A really strong script that shines through any criticism I can make. Also Simon Callow is just a joy to watch (There's gonna be a problem if the guest stars keep outshining the regulars) I can imagine how scary this story would have been if it had been produced in a manner befitting British rather than American sci fi.

Of the first three, I can honestly say that it was the episode I was least looking forward to, yet it was the episode that reminded me most of the ‘classic series,' and the one I enjoyed the most overall. I even had my Who-sceptic fiancйe on the edge of her seat. "Wow" is all I can say!

Well, I can elaborate on "Wow" - Gatiss' script is further proof that the series can work exceedingly well in this format; it reminded me so much of a Hinchcliffe/Holmes/Tom Baker era four-parter, only made bite size for today's audience. I also love the idea of the pre-credit sequence, it sets up the stories beautifully and serves as a wonderful teaser - it means we still get that "cliff-hanger feel" as the action kicks off and the howl of the music kicks in even though over half the episodes in this series are stand-alone stories. 

However, to get it out of the way first, I did think the plot had weak parts, particularly in the first half of the story – Rose's kidnap by Mr. Sneed and Gwyneth for example – it seemed to have only been put in merely to build up to the scene where Rose is trapped with the ‘unquiet dead', and to compensate for the lack of a ‘real' villain initially. I also thought the Doctor walking in and the dead just stopping their advance on Rose was a bit feeble and detracted from their menace somewhat, though I would argue that the ‘zombies/gelth' or whatever you will call them weren't what provided the story with it's moments of genuine horror, they were just a gimmick. Thanks to some classy writing, the real horror came from the human element, from our own limitations.

After all, when you come right down to it, the story was about the Doctor and his relationship with Rose and to a lesser extent with the sceptical and world-weary Dickens. Gatiss picked up seamlessly where Davies had left off, exploring in depth Rose's wonder and confusion about being able to visit the past (and for new viewers explaining the mechanics of time travel and timelines etc.) as well as perhaps sewing the seeds of attraction between the two – "You look beautiful… considering" and "I'm so glad I met you." Wonderfully and tastefully done in my opinion, at least thus far! Most importantly of all, their relationship evolves in this story Rose was proved right, and the Doctor wrong. I'd assume that most of the audience too was sharing Rose's reservations about the Gelth. This I think will prove crucial to the dynamic of the series – it's not going to be "The Doctor always knows best," it looks like there will be occasions where Rose knows best, where the Doctor can learn from her. I loved how at the start of the story the Doctor was just in awe of Dickens – totally tongue-tied by this famous historical figure, obviously a literary favourite of the Doctor's – yet by the stories end, the Doctor had opened Dickens eyes to the wonders of the universe, given him a new zest for life and the satisfaction of knowing his books will last forever. In turn, Dickens makes the Doctor realise that a Timelord he may be, and a very clever and experienced once at that, but there are still some things of which the Doctor knows nothing. Once again, the Doctor teaches, the Doctor learns.

As for the main blood of the story, it had all the key "Doctor Who" elements, with the lovely gothic touch of Mark Gatiss that had "Season 14" written all over it. The atmosphere was very "Talons of Weng-Chiang" I reckon. The dead rose from their caskets, but aha! It was aliens taking them over. Of course, the lines between good and evil aren't as black and white as they were in the seventies – though they ultimately proved hostile, the Gelth did have our pity as like the Nestene and the Timelords, they appear to have been on the losing end of this "Time War;" the intrigue around this catastrophic war growing each and every week. It is interesting to note that it was referred to as a "TIME war", and that the Doctor made a point of telling Rose that her "cosy little future" can come unravelled… Is this what happened to Gallifrey? Were the Time Lords "undone"?

Charles Dickens, portrayed admirably by Simon Callow, would have stolen the show with his witty repartee with the Doctor were it not for the character of Gwyneth, touchingly played by Eve Myles. The scenes where she looked into Rose and saw the future were the best of the episode for me – and her sad demise at the end of the story left me with a lump in the throat. From watching this episode Eccleston's Doctor seems to also share the 5th Doctor's vulnerability – a quality that made the 5th Doctor one of the most endearing of all the Doctors and produced some of the most poignant moments in the series' initial 26-year run – Adric's death, being forced to kill the Silurians and Sea Devils… Here it was Gwyneth, an innocent, a "little person" who saved the world and died, paying for the Doctor's miscalculation and his inability to solve the situation another way.

The script also had a couple of lovely little touches for the fans – I thought it was hilarious how the Doctor seemed so pleased with himself for changing his jumper. After all, it's a really big deal to a Timelord who rarely changes his clothes – I don't think his first, second, fifth, sixth, seventh or eighth incarnations ever changed their outfits! Sure, they changed they coat or cloak every once in a while, but a jumper… no chance in hell! The jumper appearing identical to the one he wore before only added to the humour! I think Terrance Dicks was right when he called the Doctor a "very smelly old man."

There were some great comedy moments too – Rose accusing Mr. Sneed's hands of "having a wander"; the Doctor's derogatory remarks about Cardiff (where the series was filmed); the Dickensian quotes littered throughout the script… it was just another triumph all round. The effects, once again, were also spot on, and the location filming in Monmouth and Swansea was beautiful, especially in the snow.

A wonderful, touching, funny, and scary story, set in a winter wonderland and encapsulated by one of the closing lines from Dickens to the Doctor:

"There are more things in Heaven and Earth than dreamed of in your philosophy. Or yours, for that matter Doctor."

Last of the Timelords, brilliant, funny, fast and flawed. The 21st century Doctor!

Episode 3 and how far have we got. Back to basics with a Doctor Who story we can all recognise. Ghosts who aren't supernatural, meticulous period setting, the Doctor burrowing through mystery and danger and a historical figure thrown in for good measure.

I loved this episode. I'd been waiting for Eccleston to settle down and settle in to the part. I'd been waiting for the uninitiated to be catered for and brought up to speed with the format we all have loved since childhood and this is where it happened. I have to admit to an anticipation of Mark Gatiss' writing as a relief from RTD's relentless comic post modern creation from eps 1 & 2 which, although sought to brilliantly reinvent the format for a new generation, sometimes smacked a little of self congratulation and rested too much on a manic humour which grated occasionally.

Before the episode, I felt a change would be as good as a rest in the writing department and I was so right.

The pacing was better in the 45 minute slot and we were treated to a great 'A' story of Victorian zombies, beautifully realised alien life forms, well served new characters and a career best turn from Simon Callow. Just the attention to detail in Dickens' life and sensibility was worth the airtime alone. 

Doctor Who at it's best deals with characters changed by meeting the doctor and Callow's Dickens was a faithful well researched revelation.

The character of Gwenyth, played out with appropriate Victorian sensibility, brought to life with a captivating performance and the mystery of her final fate was engaging and captivating.

Altogether, just enough plot for 45 minutes and not the hell for leather of eps 1 & 2 which felt like (especially 'Rose') the skeleton of a SciFi plot used to propel the characters through some genre based visually arresting eye candy for an audience raised on later Star Trek series and the output of Joss Whedon.

Then we have the slow building 'B' and 'C' plot. What a revelation to see the role of the assistant played out at its logical speed and inevitable conclusions. Sometimes you're shown something that makes you realise you should have known the truth all along and the growth of Rose Tyler is just that. Played out through all the stages she goes through; the shock, excitement, trepidation, doubt, uncertainty and glee of being a traveller in the fourth dimension. All given enough time, thought and shading, and I look forward to this delicate progression made flesh by the brilliantly talented Miss Pipper. The assistant we all needed but didn't know!

And finally, the even slower paced 'C' plot. The time war. It feels like a season long story arc in its earliest stages, or could it be planned for on an even longer timescale?

Gallifrey is gone, the war 'touched all the higher life-forms' and the truth and consequences must come out. With Rose as the continuing witness to the revelations, we can only wait with baited breath at the story unfolding and look forward to the final pieces of this multi-dimensional jigsaw puzzle.

I have my own speculation as to where it's heading, but I sincerely hope that I am wrong so the surprise of how exciting and imaginative the true answer will be a joy to behold.

So, well done Mark Gatiss. A dream come true with passion, sincerity and most of all, success.

Christopher, Billie and production team, keep it up, we're all counting the hours too each episode and thanks for bringing back that Saturday night feeling into our lives again!

With 'Rose' we saw an 'invasion Earth' style story with lots of action and witty dialogue. Then along came 'the End of the World' and we were pitched into a futuristic action style story with arguably even more laughs than Rose. Both were in my opinion great 45 minute episodes full to the brim with 'excitement, adventure and that sort of thing'. Episode 3 had some tough competition on 9/4/05!

At the end of the day, 'the Unquiet Dead' has come out top of the first three episodes in the new series. Why? Read on...

The script was beautifully written from Mark and his dialogue sparkles all the way through. All the guest cast are given lovingly crafted characters. Like in the days of Bob Holmes, each character has a story to tell. Particuarly touching was Gwyneth's tale to Rose where we learn a little of her tragic background. Add Dicken's to the mix, superbly played by Callow (he's great in anything he does), and you have a story laden with very interesting and very believable characters. You feel for these people and share their grief and unhappiness along the way. Who doesn't feel shocked and hurt when the Doctor tells Dickens to 'shut up'?

The Doctor and Rose are perfect yet again. The Doctor takes a bit of a backstep as we learn a little bit more about Rose. Again she's visibly excited about travelling. But here we see a little bit more of Rose's caring side. Her close conversations with Gwyneth (we learn that Rose's Dad is dead), her outrage over the Doctor's suggestion of using human corpses as Gelth body substitutes and her feelings of loss for Gwyneth and the news that Dickens is soon to die 'he was so nice' are superbly handled by Billie. The Doctor may take a back step in what we see and learn from him, but the bond between the pair is surely the closest a companion duo has ever been. 'I'm so glad i met you...' and Rose replies 'me too'. When i heard this i nodded with agreement.

Victorian settings always work in Doctor Who. I don't know why, but they do. Perhaps the BBC can make them so more convincingly? Watching this was like stumbling into part 7 of 'the Talons of Weng Chiang' only this time the atmosphere was so much better. This is not the only root to the shows past in this story. The Doctor meeting Dickens is similar to the Doctor seeing George Stevenson in 'the Mark of the Rani. The Doctor gives them confidence at the end of both stories. Did i even hint subtle similarities to 'Remembrance of the Daleks' at times? The undertakers behaviour to Redpath ('i'll be in the other room if you need me') and the line 'i think its gone a little bit wrong' is very similar to 'i think i may of miscalculated'. It's these little touches that make this so much like Doctor Who!

The story itself? Its very simple, but then again it has to be at only 45 minutes long. The Gelth need bodies as their's were lost in the Time War. The Auton's planet was destroyed in a war the Doctor couldn't save, so was Gallifrey and now the planet of the Gelth... the look on the Doctor's face when the Gelth reveal about their roots sais it all! So they're stealing human cadavers rather like the Zygons stole human bodies from Victorian London in 'the Bodysnatchers'. 

There is nothing to criticise 'the Unquiet Dead' on. Its job was to tell a good story and it does these exceedingly well. It looks good, sounds good and is superbly acted and directed throughout. It is also genuinely frightening at times and is easily the most eerie since the end of the Hinchcliffe era. This is truly deserving of the title 'classic' so far in the series. Well done to all those who contributed to its creation... WELL DONE! 10/10

After going to the future in episode 2 it was obvious that the Doctor and Rose would be travelling to the past.

I'm a big fan of the new opening sequence, I think it really builds up the episode, especially in this one where we see the old woman walking out of the house screaming and then all of a sudden the Dr Who screech comes in, just brilliant!!! Everytime I watch that part I feel a tingling up my spine. However there are some things which I really didn't like.

How can a man who arranged what I consider to be the best Dr Who theme yet be so bad at the incidental music. Murray Gold, not happy, the music is terrible, in some places the music doesn't fit the atmosphere or direction of the story, and in other places it just sounds so terrible and synthesised.

Up to know I really haven't been impressed with the new Dr Who series, I liked the first episode for the fact that we are following Rose's adventure rather than the Doctors, but it was still very ordinary, the second episode was just a joke, I mean trees with teeth and breasts. But the Unqiet dead is certainly a journey back to the good old days of Dr Who. In fact when I think of this episode I think of the Hinchcliffe era, which I consider to be one of the best in the entire series. For the first time we have a story which, even though it is fiction, is actually made to be believable. I absolutely hate stories in science fiction which are so fiction that they aren't worth watching. This episode is fantastic, Simon Callow is brilliant is Dickens.

I said it before and I'll say it again. I really don't like the new TARDIS, think it is the worst design ever. In episode 2 we saw the Doctor using a bike pump and a bell when controlling the TARDIS, I know this is suppose to symbolise that the Doctor has used anything he possibly can to repair segments of the TARDIS, but I think this is going to far. I also thought that when the Doctor gave directions to the wardrobe for Rose to get changed we could've seen Rose in the wardrobe looking through clothes, and perhaps bumping into Colin Bakers jacket maybe, and saying 'Who wears this rubbish'. A note to the writers, maybe some more links between the original series and this one would help, I really think that there isn't enough.

The acting in this episode is by far the best so far, the directing is excellent. I know that this is a small thing, but I like when at the end the TARDIS dematerialises and all the snow that was on it falls off, thought that was brilliant. However, maybe it is just me, but why does the TARDIS have fluroescent lights in its windows? They didn't have them back in the 1950's, to me this just makes it look false, especially since you can see the where the lights end.

Overall a fantastic episode, want to see more stories from Mark Gatiss, just thought that the music really let it down. I also want to see some stories on other planets as well, Earth isn't the only planet around.

Before I finish off, has anyone noticed that the Doctor uses his new sonic screwdriver (which I hate, love the old sonic screwdriver, WHY DID YOU CHANGE IT!!!) like a stylus, like in episode 2 which he was trying to unlock a few rooms etc. The sonic screwdriver is a great concept, but there is such a thing as overuse.